This just confirmed from Fanfare / Ponent Mon at APE table #249:Joining us at our table will be special guest Sean Michael Wilson, the editor of the upcoming AX Alternative

Manga anthology from Top Shelf. Sean will handing out samplers of AX and will be presenting a talk about Gekiga (Dramatic Pictures) Manga on Sunday, from 5:00 – 5:45 pm at APE.

Here’s the description from the APE programming guide:

5:00-5:45 AX and Gekiga: Alternative Manga in Japan—Sean Michael Wilson looks at the roots and contemporary state of indy/alternative manga in Japan, using rare and unseen visuals supplied by the original Gekiga creators of the 1950s and 1960s and info from the editors of AX, the premier alternative anthology in Japan today. Plus, a preview of the upcoming book AX Collection (Top Shelf), which presents a selection of this indy manga for the first time in English.

Sean has also been working closely with Fanfare / Ponent Mon and is due to take over translation of their series The times of Botchan from the Fifth Volume due in 2009.

Fanfare / Ponent Mon are set to exhibit this weekend on table #249 at APE when we get back from Trick or Treating! The listing shows that we’ll be in great company both in our block and in the entire hall! If you’re in town please drop into the show which takes place at:

Visitors to our table will have the chance to enter a prize draw to win a selection of Fanfare / Ponent Mon titles. No purchase necessary and the winner need not be present at the draw as the prize will be mailed to them.

On the table will be the entire range of Fanfare / Ponent Mon’s output to date with special emphasis on:

The Quest for the Missing Girl by Jiro Taniguchi

Just closed in the OCT. 2008 issue of Previews magazine, Fanfare / Ponent Mon’s latest release from manga master Jiro Taniguchi is a seinen manga (men’s comic) one-shot about a climber who is called from his peaceful mountain home to the streets of Tokyo to find his best friend’s missing daughter. What he encounters is a city where danger lies wait in every alley, school girls sell themselves for money and the truth can be a rare commodity in a city of gleaming skyscrapers and gritty side streets.

First previewed at San Diego Comic-Con, The Quest for the Missing Girl will be available in limited quantities at APE.

Disappearance Diary by Hideo Azuma

“This manga has a positive outlook on life, and so it has been made with as much realism removed as possible.” What would you do if your editors were giving you hell, your deadlines were impossible to meet and you’re just a few drinks away from killing yourself? If you’re manga artist Hideo Azuma, you run away from it all and become a homeless person. Disappearance Diary is the mostly-true, mostly-humorous story about Azuma’s two attempts to ‘disappear’ from his regular life, his pressure-cooker career as a manga artist, and his eventual stint in rehab when his alcoholism got out of control. Disappearance Diary is the recipient of the Grand Prize of the 2005 Japanese Media Arts Festival

Also available will be all three Eisner nominated titles:

Japan As Viewed By 17 Creators (2007)

The Walking Man (2007)

The Ice Wanderer and other stories (2008)

as well as a few remaining copies of the sold out Blue by Kiriko Nananan plus the entire back list.